March witnessed recovery on port throughput growth with container throughput rising around 20% and cargo throughput increasing about 14%, statistics from major ports showed.
The ports around the Bohai Sea reported higher throughput growth than other seas during the first quarter of 2008. The ports in Rizhao, Dalian and Yingkou saw an over 20% growth in cargo throughput; the Port of Tianjin saw a 17% increase. The Port of Shanghai at the East China Sea and the Port of Shenzhen at the South China Sea posted a growth of 7.4% and 17.9%, respectively.
As for container throughput, the ports in Lianyungang, Yingkou, Guangzhou, Dalian, Tianjin and Ningbo achieved an over 20% gain. The ports in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Ningbo were the top four ports in term of overall throughput.
26 new container berths with total capacity of 17.15 million containers (TEU) are expected to be built this year, a little less than the added demand of 18 million TEUs.